Lava lake. Fire Lake Erta Ale

Volcano Nyiragongo located in the Virunga National Park in Congo on the border with Rwanda. It is one of Africa's most active volcanoes, with 34 recorded eruptions since 1882, including many periods where activity was continuous for many years.

The main crater of the volcano is 250 meters deep and 2 km wide, and a lava lake sometimes forms in it. In terms of the amount of lava, the lake of the Nyiragongo volcano is the most voluminous of the lava lakes today. The depth of the lake largely depends on the activity of the volcano. The maximum observed lava level in the crater reached 3250m.

Nyiragongo lava is unusually liquid and flowing, such features are caused by a special chemical composition - it contains very little quartz. Thus, during an eruption, lava flows flowing along the slope of the volcano can reach speeds of 100 km/h.

Between 1894 and 1977, there was an active lava lake in the crater and on January 10, 1977, when the walls of the crater collapsed, violent eruption. It lasted about an hour and claimed 70 lives, wiping out nearby villages, and although the exact number of deaths was impossible to determine, unofficial estimates put them at several thousand.

Today, the eruptions of the Nyiragongo volcano are considered unprecedented, because no other volcano in the world has such steeply inclined walls and a lava lake with such a dangerous composition.

Another major eruption occurred in January 2002. However, fortunately, people were warned about the danger. 400,000 people were evacuated. And yet, many who did not hear about the impending eruption paid dearly for it. 147 people died during the eruption from suffocation and the effects of the earthquake caused by the volcano's activity.

Six months later, Nyiragongo erupted again. The volcano continues to remain active to this day. In June 2012, a team of scientists and intrepid explorers stepped onto the shore of a lava lake boiling in the depths of the Nyiragongo crater. These photographs were taken by Oliver Grunewald during an expedition to Nyiragongo Crater Lake.

In the northeast of Ethiopia, in the Danakil Desert, is located active volcano Erta Ale, in the crater of which you can see streams of molten lava escaping from the very center of the earth. Due to the constant activity, as a result of which clouds of smoke appear over the surface of the volcano every now and then, the Erta Ale volcano got its name, translated into Russian meaning “Smoking Volcano”.

Erta Ale is a basalt shield volcano, one of five volcanoes on our planet, in the heart of which there is a lava lake. But only Erta Ale has not one, but two such sites. The tectonic pattern on the surface of the lava lakes of the Erta Ale volcano is constantly changing. Here you can see both long-frozen areas of magma, forming a thin crust, and very fresh, easily destroyed islands. This process is accompanied by chaotic bursts of bright red molten lava and emissions of accumulated gas. According to the chemical composition of Erta Ale magma, it is compared with deep-sea volcanoes located in the middle part mountain range at the bottom of the ocean. In both cases, a low content of silicic acid in the magma is observed.

The volcano has become more unpredictable in recent years. If in 2004 the lake in the crater of the volcano turned into a tectonic stronghold, remaining in this state for almost 20 months, then in November 2010 the volcano woke up with unexpected force. The eruption was accompanied by tremors, which significantly affected the state of the faults in the northeast. Scientists are closely monitoring changes in the volcano's activity, as it is located in an important seismic zone called the Afar Triangle. Noticeable plate shifts and an increase in the width of faults can significantly change geographical map our planet, in particular, affect the entire continent of Africa.

From year to year, steadfastly overcoming all the difficulties of a dangerous journey, about 500-1000 tourists and researchers reach the crater of the volcano. Being so close to the center of the volcano is incredibly difficult due to the high air temperature (about 50°C) and acidic fumes. Moreover, to get to the lava lakes in the crater of the volcano, you need to walk about 13 km.

Erta Ale Volcano - PHOTO

Night. My legs ache and the rain is lashing the tent. The wind seeps through the cracks under the awning and blows through the light tropical tent, forcing us to press closer and closer to each other. One can’t help but think: what are we doing here? But the rain subsides, and, emerging from under the wet hem of the tent, we take a couple of steps towards the edge of the volcano’s crater. A gust of wind blows away the steam coming from the crater, and we no longer remember either the wet tent or the chill. Even our feet no longer hurt, but want to jump with excitement, but we can’t - there is fragile pumice under our shoes, and a few hundred meters below us an orange-red lake of lava is boiling. We had already donated a tripod to the volcano, fortunately, without a camera - it was blown away by a gust of wind when it was left on the edge for just a second. Let's consider this a ritual sacrifice.

Like a giant kaleidoscope, the oval of the lake is constantly changing. In the black crust of slag on its surface, bright scarlet cracks open, like lightning splitting the night sky. Fountains of lava spurting from cracks push slabs of slag to the edges of the crater, where they melt and sink, only to rise again to the surface of this giant boiling cauldron. In minutes, tens, or even hundreds of millions of years of the planet’s history flash before us: the movement of black plates on the “surface” of the lake is a miniature copy of the movement of tectonic plates on the surface of the Earth.

We have been dreaming about climbing Nyiragongo for over two years. After visiting the lava lake at the top of Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia, we became fascinated by volcanoes. Since then we've been able to visit Krakatau and a couple of other active fire mountains in Indonesia, as well as the notorious Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. But only lava lakes allow you to truly get closer to the seething depths of the earth and feel the power of our planet hidden under the earth’s crust.

Lava lakes - cauldrons of bubbling molten basalt - appear and disappear periodically in volcanoes around the world, but only a few are known to be permanent. In addition, all of the five existing on at the moment lava lakes are very difficult to access. One is actually in Antarctica, in the crater of Mount Erebus. Try it, get there! Another, which recently reappeared in the Halemaumau crater of the Hawaiian Kilauea volcano, is closed to visitors for safety reasons: apparently, the Americans are playing it safe. There are also lava lakes in the craters of Marum and Benbow volcanoes on Ambrym Island in Vanuatu, but getting there is also not easy, and because weather conditions they are not always visible. And finally, two lava lakes are located in Africa. The lake in the Erta-Ale volcano, which we have already developed, can only be reached during an expensive multi-day jeep expedition through one of the hottest and most unsuitable deserts in the world. The other, in the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano, is located just a dozen kilometers from the million-plus city of Goma, and can be easily reached in just a day. But - and with lava lakes there is always a but - it is located on the territory of the Congo, and this imposes its own characteristics on the visit.

Goma is located on the shores of Lake Kivu, right on the border with Rwanda. This former upscale Belgian resort has been in the news in recent decades, not in the best light, either in connection with armed groups hiding in the Congo after the Rwandan genocide, or in connection with the volcanic eruption in 2002, which wiped out half the city, or in apocalyptic forecasts of a limnological catastrophe, the cause of which will be the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane dissolved in the depths of Kivu.

If you are worried “about our tourists in the Congo,” do not worry - the largest contingent of peacekeepers in the world is deployed in the Congo - about 20 thousand. Of these, about a quarter are located in the province of Nord-Kivu, and several thousand are located directly in Goma. Goma is therefore a center of calm, at least compared to the chaos occurring in other parts of the former Zaire.

Military conflicts in the area have long subsided, but for several years the volcano remained closed to visitors. The Virunga Park Authority was forced to restrict access to some parts of the park, including the volcano, due to charcoal burns. Those living near the Gazprom office should be reminded that food in Africa is mostly cooked on coals, and as a result, deforestation is big business. For several years, armed groups of charcoal burners fought with the rangers of the national park, until the “forest brothers” were finally pacified. Since March 2010, the park has been reopened to tourists.

At the border we were met by a guide named Emmanuel (a pygmy, although he himself denies this). Having given him dollars for visas, we stood waiting on a bare piece of land between Rwanda and Congo, not daring to take out our cameras and photograph the photogenic African women who, with amazing dexterity, rushed from border to border, carrying huge bowls of watermelons or cabbages on their heads. Emmanuel soon returned with a letter from the head of immigration himself, and just half an hour later, after our names, ages and places of employment had been manually recorded in three places, yellow fever vaccination certificates had been scrutinized and passports had been stamped, we were freed from the bureaucratic shackles .

A car with equipment was waiting for us on the other side of the barrier. A year ago, when we first visited the city on foot, burdened with backpacks, Goma seemed to us an ominous post-apocalyptic hole. But now, looking at it from the window of the jeep, Goma was not much different from another large African city. Picking up tickets at the central office national park and cooks with provisions watchtowers With the airport partially flooded by the lava flow of the 2002 eruption, we headed towards the volcano.

At the foot we were met by rangers with AK-47s, each of which had several additional magazines with cartridges attached with duct tape. According to the guest book, ascents occur several times a week. The first part of the climb leads through a tropical forest, the trees of which, those that survived the charcoal burns, seem to be embraced by solidified lava, which, surprisingly, did not burn the tree, but simply decided to envelop its base. Orchids nod overhead. The Gaboon viper, one of the continent's deadliest snakes, lurks in the bushes, but we notice it and avoid it. On the passes, sharp porous stones dig into tired buttocks - this is reminiscent of the lava of the 2002 eruption, when at an altitude of 2800 meters a crack opened in the volcano, through which a lake of fire flowed out, but the lava did not reach the city, but stopped here. Lava from another fissure, which opened just a few kilometers from the airport, leveled half of Goma and stopped only after reaching Lake Kivu. Steam is pouring out of a crack at an altitude of 2800 meters - this, as the guide explained, is rainwater that has seeped into the hot rocks.

At an altitude of 3000 meters the landscape changes dramatically - we are suddenly surrounded by a forest of giant lobelias. At this height they stand like quaint trees, but the higher up the slope, the smaller and smaller they become, resembling cabbage plantings rather than trees.

One more steep climb and we reach the rim of the crater. It's not dark yet. The walls of the crater go down in terraces, marking the previous levels of the lava lake. It seethes several hundred meters below us. In the light of day, the lake looks almost calm, but as darkness falls, the volcano’s activity increases, and it begins to resemble a huge boiling cauldron of tomato soup. We set up camp and try our cook's cooking.

Climbing Nyiragongo, seeing the lava lake and descending took less than a day and cost about half a thousand dollars per person, that is, about the same amount as visiting other famous attractions in the region. We tasted these delights earlier - and flew on balloons over the endless expanses of the Serengeti, and looked into the eyes of mountain gorillas in Rwanda, and visited other lava lakes... But, standing on the edge of the Nyiragongo crater, holding hands tightly, as if holding each other from the alluring kaleidoscope of the deadly lake, we do not for a second we remembered the effort, money, kilometers or time that we had to sacrifice in order to see for ourselves, with our own eyes, what our planet is capable of.

General information

The volcano has been continuously active since 1967; at the same time, streams of hot lava periodically pour out of its crater (such volcanoes, formed from layers of spilled lava, are called shield volcanoes). With each of its eruptions it rises higher and higher above the Danakil depression; Now its height is already 613 m.

In 1971, an expedition led by Garun Taziev conducted the first study of the Erta Ale volcano. The gas outlet temperature ranged from 1125 to 1200° C. The thermal radiation power of the lake averaged 30 kilowatts per square meter. The temperature directly in the melt mass was 600° on the surface of the dark crust, and 900° at a depth of 70 centimeters.

In recent years, the Erta Ale volcano has become more unpredictable. If in 2004 the lake in the crater of the volcano turned into a tectonic stronghold, remaining in this state for almost 20 months, then in November 2010 the volcano woke up with unexpected force. The lake continually changes its level and pattern of fiery stripes, and lava flows periodically from it. Since February 2010, the lake level has risen by more than 30 meters, which ultimately led to the overflow of the lake and explosive releases of hot lava droplets into the air from November 2010. The eruption was accompanied by tremors, which significantly affected the condition of the faults in the north. East Africa. Scientists are closely monitoring changes in the volcano's activity, as it is located in an important seismic zone called the Afar Triangle. Noticeable plate shifts and an increase in the width of faults can significantly change the geographical map of our planet, in particular, affect the entire continent of Africa.

Invites you on an incredible adventure in one of the most vibrant and mysterious countries African continent - Ethiopia. In the company of the popular blogger and enthusiastic traveler Sergei Dolya, we will meet the descendants of one of the oldest civilizations on the planet, spend the night under the stars at the mouth of the seething volcano Erta Ale and plunge into ancient times, getting to know the legendary city of Lalibela.

You and I have to cross about half of the territory of Ethiopia, approaching the very borders of Eritrea in the Danakil Desert. We will spend the night under the starry African sky in open air “hotels”, enter hot springs, plunge into the “Dead Sea” of Africa - the Afdera salt lake, where you can lie and even sit on the surface of the water, and climb the Dallol volcano, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. Located 200 meters below sea level, this is the hottest place on our planet. We will also visit the Assal salt lake, where at sunset we will watch endless caravans of camels carrying bales of salt. In addition, we will set up a night camp at the seething mouth of the Erta Ale volcano and enjoy the cosmic beauty of this amazing place!

At the end of our adventure we will go to famous city Lalibela, often called the eighth wonder of the world. Lalibela is a city of monasteries and churches carved into the rocks, reaching 10 m in height. At the moment, eleven stone churches from the 12th century have been preserved, which are a UNESCO heritage. Each church has its own unique architectural style, each of them has magnificent carvings, and each of them contains well-preserved ancient paintings.

Breathtaking scenery and majestic mountains, unique flora and fauna, primitive tribes, intricate interweaving of history, traditions, destinies and various cultures make Ethiopia the most colorful and most adventurous country in Africa. Therefore, get ready for an amazing trip that will definitely be one of the top five most memorable experiences of your life. During the trip, Sergey Dolya will help you take bright and memorable photographs, and in the evenings he will discuss with you what it means to dedicate your life to travel.
Let us note that our adventures will be filmed by a quadcopter, and upon returning home, we will edit a beautiful film for the participants as a souvenir.

EEthiopia is mine old dream. I have already tried to get there several times, but each time the trips were canceled. 100 years ago, our poet Nikolai Gumilyov traveled through Ethiopia and took photographs of this country. In fact, he was the first blogger to travel to this country. I want to drive through the same places 100 years later and see what has changed...

Program.

Day 1.
Arrival in Addis Ababa. Check-in to the guesthouse. Rest. Excursion around Addis Ababa (visiting a museum with the skeleton of Lucy, a market, a cafe with freshly squeezed juices, Pushkin Square, Orthodox Temple, mountains overlooking the city). In the evening flight to Mekele. Check-in to a hotel in Mekele.

Day 2.
Departure by jeep to the Danakil desert. In the evening, climb the Erta Ale volcano. Descent into the crater, observing the lava lake. Overnight in huts on the edge of the outer crater.

Day 3.
Descent into the crater, meeting the dawn. Breakfast. Excursion to the second crater of the volcano. Rest.
Evening sunset at the lava lake.

Day 4.
Dawn at the lava lake. Descent from the volcano. Transfer to Lake Afdera. Swimming in the lake, excursion to the salt mines. Overnight on the lake shore under the open sky.

Day 5.
Transfer to Lake Assal. At sunset, watching camel caravans carrying salt. Overnight in the open air.

Day 6.
Climbing the colorful Dallol volcano. Visit to salt mines. Visit to the salt canyon. Road to Mekele. Check-in at the hotel.

Day 7.
Transfer to Lalibela. Along the way, a stop in Veldiya, where we will see the real life of the Amhara and Raya peoples. Overnight in Lalibela.

Day 8.
Breakfast. Transfer to the famous Christian churches carved into the rock. Visit to the northwestern group of churches: Bet Medhane Alem, Bete Maryam, Bet Meskel, Bet Danaghel, Bet Mikael and Bete Golgotha ​​(women are not allowed). After lunch, visit the southeastern group of churches: Beth Gabriel-Ruphael, Beth Merkorios, Beth Amanuel, Beth Abba Libanos. End the day with a visit to the most famous church 0 Bet Giyorgis, considered the most elegant and best preserved church. Night in Lalibela.

Day 9.
Breakfast. Transfer to the airport. Flight to Addis Ababa. Flight to Moscow.